Today in history

1757: Forces of the East India Co. led by Robert Clive defeated troops loyal to the provincial governor of Bengal in the Battle of Plassey, which effectively marked the beginning of British colonial rule in India.

1868: Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for his “Type-Writer.”

1931: Aviators Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from New York on a round-the- world flight that lasted 8 days, 15 hours.

1972: President Nixon and White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman discussed a plan to use the CIA to obstruct the FBI’s Watergate investigation. (Revelation of the tape recording of this conversation sparked Nixon’s resignation in 1974.)